Quote:
Originally Posted by fredr123
Fees
3(1) A supplier may charge a purchaser a one‑time fee for activating a prepaid purchase card at the time the prepaid purchase card is purchased.
(2) A supplier may charge a fee for replacing a lost or stolen prepaid purchase card.
(3) A supplier may charge a fee to customize a prepaid purchase card.
(4) No supplier may charge a fee other than those authorized in this section.
(5) Subsection (4) applies to prepaid purchase cards sold before, on or after the day on which this Regulation comes into force.
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A retailer's justification for the first clause is complete BS. Yes it costs a lot to develop and maintain a Gift card system, but the real reason they have it is because 10% of girf cards never get redeemed and the ones that do get redeemed don't necessarily get used right away. So in essence they get an additional 10% revenue plus they can defer some of their costs of goods sold to a later date to take advantage of the time value of money. So they get 10% plus the money-market rate for a couple of quarters on average for having these cards. Much more than the cost of maintaining the system. The lesson: Tell a retailer that wants you to pay these fees to take a hike. They're still ahead by having gift cards.